Actionables for Issues that Matter
Activism to stop horse racing is back;
Demonstrators held UP “tombstones” representing the deaths of 26 horses who died at the track in 2021.
The Horse Racing Industry does not seem yet ready to deal with what is “killing it off” – one horse at a time.
Looks like Horse Racing Industry accepts the deaths of at least 100 horses at CA tracks for the year 2021;
Getting to Net Zero Emissions is the major objective.
See list of ten areas for action.
Goal is to achieve balance between greenhouse gases put into atmosphere & those taken out.
Referred to as carbon neutral; although zero emissions & zero carbon are slightly different.
Usually means that no emissions were produced in the first place.
2050 is time line.
Wow –What is next?
Can we keep up?
Seems to be more innovation, startups, & investment in Technology than ever.
Science is gaining more credibility in spite of COVID & Misinformation
Here is a significant list of what is emerging where science & tech are focusing.
Startups are being funded with innovative SPAC underwriting.
All or most of this Working List are being developed and gaining investment & impact.
From the publication of the all inclusive and definitive Economist magazine.
22 emerging technologies to be watched, adapted, & adopted:
Student-athletes receive $3.6 B in athletic scholarships.
Have colleges become farm teams for pro sports?
Star athletes are recruited, provided full boat scholarships, & benefits.
If you become college star & team winners, they then turn to real pros for bigger money
If they are college stars then they drop collegiate scholarship for bigger pro money.
The purpose of sports programs in higher education schools is lost as winning becomes everything.
Developing future leaders and citizens is not the focus– its is winning & winning.
Losers are benched and coaches are fired.
Then it’ s on to find winning formula & program. Not Building character, trained community leaders, & contributors.
What is your assessment of this “Indictment of the MBA Expectation” by the author of “The Golden Passport”, Duff McDonald?
HBS is in a class of its own. It is the pinnacle of elitism which is not necessarily bad.
The average MBA schools do not create elitism; those ranked 1 – 10 might, but not 11 – 50. Greed is behind it all. HBS leverages that.
The Moral Failure of the MBA Elite is not because of the MBA, but because of erosion of our society’s morals.
Turn the function, purpose. & organization up side down.
Get all city department working together on the streets.
Combine Police & Public Safety Department’s including function & leadership.
Funding of Police Dept. would remain the same or increase under Public Service organization.
All functions of a City would be integrated into one Public Safety Dept. & Mgt.
Public Safety Resource Protection & Emergency Services Director & Administration would provide leadership, management, & strategic guidance.
Objective is to remove Carbon from the Atmosphere & Getting Credits for it.
Climate Model Scenarios to remove billions of metric tons of carbon dioxide.
This accomplishment will be made annually by 2050, while also ramping up emissions reductions.
Use of new ways & technology the biggest challenges of managing climate change.
One way is to storage carbon deep underground.
Changes were needed to help the soil hold additional water & prevent erosion
One change was to use of carbon credits as new product in farming business model.
And the euthanization of young horses goes on & on.
Young Race Horses continue to be put down at Tracks.
All Four of California Tracks have had multiple deaths
Recently, Golden Gate Fields appears to be the worst
Cause of deaths was listed as musculoskeletal. Suggests that immature bone structure not fully developed.
Young horses under 5 are the victims of serious injuries.
Los Alamitos track experienced another death last week
When if ever will the racing of young horses stop?
Objective is to remove CO2 or carbon from the atmosphere.
And store CO2 it pulled out air in basalt-based minerals
Being on-site will make that integration cheaper.
Need to avoid new carbon emissions & remove carbon dioxide..
And to deal with warming of planet by more than 2 degrees Celsius
One way to do this: Direct-air-capture (DAC) technology.
Pulls CO2 directly out of the air, so it can be stored somewhere else.
But High cost of DAC today means few companies currently use it.
The question is
How do private or even public companies avoid taxes?
Private equity firms have conquered the American tax system.
$4.5 trillion industry has avoided paying billions in taxes
Have managed to derail efforts to increase their tax burden.
Lobbyists and campaign contributions helped make it happen.
200 lobbyists & doled out & 600 M campaign contributions in last decade
The I.R.S. almost never audits private equity firms
Even as whistle-blowers have filed claims alleging illegal tax avoidance.
It Ain’t Easy to develop or create an algorithm to solve a problem–
It take a lot to program an algorithm & it uses a lot of energy.
Researchers & scientists are using algorithms to mitigate their carbon footprint.
Harder questions asked about the convenience vs.the worth of the planetary cost.
Part of need to understand the impact of this carbon foot print on the Environment.
Are we using words in our conversations as fillers?
Is this not just annoying but reflects on person saying such words?
Filler words & phrases make you sound unprofessional and less credible.
These “vocalized pauses” (filler words) will “severely cramp the effectiveness of your communication.
Avoid These 5 Filler Words to Sound More Charming & Confident”. –And articulate.
The air you breath is literally full of micro pieces of plastic.
Tons of such micro- plastics are floating over the western United States.
Plastics that are falling from the sky are smaller than 5 millimeters & from many sources.
Plastic bags & bottles thrown into waterways & break down into smaller pieces.
Washing machine are even another source of tiny microfibers.
Falls off washed synthetic clothing; Flushed into wastewater treatment plants.
Used plastic bottles best known for clogging the world’s oceans.
Resulted in surprisingly short supply, as consumer brands compete to meet recycling targets.
Spot prices for recycled PET flakes have plastic-bottle waste doubled in Europe.
Plastic bottles have been recycled into carpets and takeaway food cartons
Now clothing brands are also vying for them in fashion industry.
Has not figured out how to recycle plastic based garments such as polyester
Wildfires are getting worse. Fires grow more severe and more common.
Firefighters are stretched thin.
Fire fighting technology is emerging with 3 companies leading.
Reining in wildfires will take much more than tech solutions
But some startups think there’s a role for AI, ML, drones, and more
This machine learning tool [is] hopefully going to reduce the hours spent fighting a fire
Help them control future fires with planning,
Sonia Kastner founder and CEO of Pano told Emerging Tech Brew. “They were calling for cameras and drones and satellites and AI.
Here is what composter expert, Mike, did and related.
“There is a lot of material that could be composted at home and not sent to the landfill.
BUT people will tell you they do not have the space next to their swimming pool
and they do not have the time to maintain it. It also assumes they have a garden.”
Hauling it away for composting is yet another cost like garbage removal.
I am fortunate that my small burro will suck up our leaves and remove them.
My grass is cut every week and is mulched back into the grass.
End of Leaf blowers means more composting.
Less leaves and greenery going to literal waste.
Leaf Vacuums will replace blowers as composting becoming serious business.
Composed material is Not just a pile of dirt and leaves rotting in the backyard.
Compost market to 2025 by product type (yard trimming, food waste, manure, mushroom compost, & various composting.
Global compost market is expected to reach an estimated $9.2 billion by 2024.
Leaf Blowers are finally on their way out.
Took years of opposition and advocacy for ban over next 2 yrs.
Using small, gas-powered equipment like leaf blowers and generators ends up being
Much worse for the environment than driving a car for the same amount of time,
New law was driven by powerful California Air Resources Board (CARB),
Next is composting focus and public education.
We need work force trained & ready to make America Work.
Something like the National Guard.
How bout a program for National Service for at least a year or two of young lives?
Gen Stanley McChrystal called on President Biden to invest in national service
That would be one million young Americans annually — Males & Females.
Rebuild civic and social connections by bringing participants together
Cow manure hitting the environmental fan.
#1 source of methane in agriculture comes from livestock burping & manure.
Climate experts won’t be able to limit warming without tackling methane.
Methane is the main component of natural gas.
Can leak into the atmosphere from pipelines or other sources -landfills, erupting volcanoes, & decomposing veggies.
New satellite technology and development provides tracking & data,
Previous systems tech predates planning for cloud computing & AI-based data analysis.
For eNow satellite technology can measure each tree’s health, size, and species
Can now compute total biomass of trees & ability to pull carbon dioxide out of the air.
Muon Space & others plans to launch a fleet of satellites designed to analyze Earth’s atmosphere, land, & water in detail
Another Hard Knock for Molokai.
There is a shortage of Electricity on Molokai & it is unaffordable,
Are large electricity deserts throughout Molokai on Hawaiian homestead land
Utility poles do not reach some Hawaiian homestead lands on the Island.
Hawaiian Electric Co .uses its monopoly status to gain max fee revenue,
Molokai is ready to create a new reputation– not the “island of hard knocks”
Rather it’s a community that knows how to successfully steward the environment.
Now seeks a way that supports the economy while preserving the culture.
Battery recycling—with EV adoption set to surge in the coming years.
Ford invested $50 million in Redwood Materials, an EV battery recycling firm.
Battery recycling is key to building a sustainable all-electric future
Supply of necessary metals is finite.
Presently cheaper to make batteries from newly mined materials than recycled ones.
Experts expect the economics to change as lead batteries are phased out,
$34B Lobby Money in 2018. Got to be more now.
The first reason for lobbying is classic interest-group politics:
Well-financed, well-organized lobbying groups strongly oppose major bills..
Often no powerful grass-roots group are devoted to merits of certain issues.
Dirty or Dark Money should be reported & published for every bill going through Congress,
Horse Racing Industry plagued by conflict of Interest & ownership.
Breeders Cup Board Members Own Horses Trained by Baffert
12 of the 14 members of the Breeders’ Cup Board involved;
Have had Baffert train their horses.
Major races seem to be mired in how to deal with Baffert
Now they have more conflicts —
Owning horses in an industry they are to regulate.
